


best friends with tax benefits? for life, my friend.

by Anonymous



Series: Flower Anon's MCYT collection [3]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Best Friends, Blink And You Miss It Slash, Gen, Nightmares, Not RPF, Platonic Life Partners, Platonic Soulmates, Snowchester, minor mentions of abuse, takes place after the confrontation in the vault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:41:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29681334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: there was a curse placed on the seat of power in l'manburg, or so it was said. tubbo had always seen it to be true. two other presidents, two other people. both pairs torn apart by circumstance and power plays. he wouldn't be like that too, right?(this is about the characters, don't send to cc's, the usual on my fics.)
Relationships: Tubbo & Ranboo
Series: Flower Anon's MCYT collection [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2149773
Comments: 2
Kudos: 114
Collections: Anonymous





	best friends with tax benefits? for life, my friend.

**Author's Note:**

> okay just gonna line it here, there's a little mention of puffychu and a vague mention of wilbur/eret that can be interpreted as platonic or romantic. this fic is entirely based off of the wiki changing their relationship to husbands on their character pages and the stream on 2/23/21 into 2/24/21. the relationship between these two irl is completely platonic and i do not mean to insinuate anything through this fic.

when he looks at the laughing boy in front of him, he can't help but think of someone else. he'd like to laugh with him, laugh about the absurdity of their being platonic life partners coming from a night of no sleep, to the point they'd gotten bad to verify the "marriage" (who knew the demon was an ordained minister?), but he can't. he can't help but think of two men who'd stood on the podium as they had before the country they'd all tried to save died. he can't help but think of the untamed energy they'd held, that he held too. he couldn't help but compare his best friend, his better half, to the men that had stood by his predecessors sides. men who had seen the storm and embraced it warmly.

wilbur and eret were not like they were. he remembered back to the revolution, back to the five of them in a shitty van. wilbur had been more foolhardy back then. fundy hadn't lost his entire family yet. eret hadn't carried such a heavy weight on their shoulders. he and tommy could still be kids. times had been more simple. he remembers looking up to eret most in those days. tommy and fundy had wilbur, so it made sense he'd gravitate to the other adult. they'd all watched the adults grow closer to each other, being the first person the other would go to when making a decision. and then the final control room had happened. he'd never seen wilbur look so angry, but also so hurt. looking back, he realizes they'd probably had something similar to what he and ranboo have.

another three months pass and wounds had started to heal. eret still was banned from l'manburg, but it never stopped him from visiting the castle. they'd spent many days talking, the older man listening to him talk about his problems. they seemed so trivial to his current self. he'd listened as she told him stories of times he'd forgotten. those nights felt the calmest, and he could see why wilbur had always confided in him.

the election came with a new president. he'd watched quietly as the man and his new vice walked around calmly. far too calmly given the hatred in the streets. he'd seen the best of times for them. he'd seen the worst too. some nights the sharp noise of breaking glass sounded in his ears still. they'd never been hit, not until the very very end (the worst of it,) but the noise only made him hurt, because he could remember the day when open looks and warm smiles had turned to cruel words and shouting. he didn't want to blame his so-called treachery, but he knew that was why.

a month and a half after the war, after the funeral, he looked at the man standing at his side and saw someone he didn't recognize. he was starting to think he couldn't recognize himself either. the ghosts of the past haunted them both, but they had each other. and the silhouette of the man that had kept them from causing chaos enough to destroy the wobbly peace behind them, invisible and unknown.

he remembered the day he met his current best friend. it'd been a week and a half before he exiled his one at the time. he saw the lanky boy, a hybrid like himself, and took him in. he remembered what it was like to be alone like that. it'd been three days later he'd learned of his friend's memory problems, and promised to keep the book he'd given him a secret. he would, because for once someone looked at him and didn't see a child president. he looked at him and saw tubbo. just another kid. and that's what they were. children thrust into an adults world far too early.

they'd spent many nights consoling each other through nightmares, holding each other after the exile had begun and when the hallucinations got bad. when doomsday came and they went separate ways they'd still find themselves collapsing into the same beds together, whether it was in snowchester or ranboo's house in the arctic. having the other felt natural and filled a hole in their hearts they didn't know they had.

they'd been in the nether when it happened. they'd travel often, sometimes tommy would come with them but he was usually too busy. it was late, and they were both starting to slip into that zone of just past too tired. they'd cracked jokes about their own pitiful love lives before, but somehow this night felt different. the heat and tired laughter made his body feel lighter and he felt dizzy in the best way. he thought that he'd broken the president's curse, but hearing the other boy humming along to whatever music he had playing while they worked simply made him feel more entrapped by the title he hadn't wanted.

"hey, ranboo?"

"yeah? what's up man?"

"y'know how we joke about being each other's valentine and marrying each other and crap?"

"course i do, my memory isn't _that_ bad."

"what if we do? like, for real. we're eighteen, and i can't really see myself getting with anyone. never even really felt that strongly about anyone. dunno why i do about you but… sometimes the jokes don't feel like jokes, but i don't wanna like… date you date you? i love you but not in like, the way niki and puffy love each other."

"oh. guess phil was right, i didn't have to worry. uh, uh, yeah, i kinda feel the same? i love you, but not in a romantic way. can't really think of being with anyone else, but you kinda fill that place if that makes any sense i'm sorry this is awkward haha…"

he guessed in the end he hadn't broken the curse, but had instead embraced it and found his person in a way that wasn't connected to the position he'd once held. his predecessors had had their people for power. wilbur had eret, but they'd both cast aside their bond for their own positions. schlatt had "had" quackity, but they were both a little more than two faced and used each other for power. tubbo had ranboo, but their bond was different. neither of them wanted power. neither of them cared about leaving a legacy. they'd been there for each other when everyone else had drifted following the imprisonment. "yeah. it's a little awkward, but we're a little awkward. best friends with tax benefits?"

he heard his best friend laugh, his lovely laugh that was actually from his chest that mixed with little ender noises. "best friends with tax benefits for sure."

bad had been confused but helped them officiate, q served as their lawyer, drafting contracts they wouldn't really need. puffy and eret had been there too, both a bit confused but happy for them, they'd come a long way from the traumatized children they'd been. a pair of ghosts, unseen to everyone, looked on happily that the curse they'd created had been broken in full by a boy with a heart too big and a nervous wreck. both boys knew tommy would whine about it when he found out, but they knew all three would laugh about it later. regardless of where the future went, they'd have each other, tax benefits for their technical marriage or not.


End file.
